About Kawaishi Jujitsu

Kawaishi Jujitsu is essentially judo in its most complete sense, as against the competitively orientated sport judo we might be most familiar with. Judo was never intended to be "just" a sport but the sporting element has been largely responsible for its enormous rate of takeup around the world and into the olympics. For judo to be a safe and satisfying sport that could evolve constantly under the pressure of contest, many of its techniques had to be disallowed in competition, since the defining characteristic of judo matches are that they be true contests where each player was allowed to go "full pelt" against a defiantly resistive and skilled opponent.

For this to be done in relative complete safety, only throws, pins and submissions (armlocks and chokes) are allowed, since the nature of these techniques is that they are not inherently dangerous in a controlled and refereed environment and where both players are skilled in breakfalling and other defensive tactics. Wrist locks, leg locks, strikes and kicks however cannot be done with full force safely and thus are not allowed in Shiai (contest). Nevertheless they are still a a part of judo and are typically practiced by the higher grades in the form of kata. It is the competitive element of sport judo that has been so responsible for its proven character building and its constantly evolving proving ground for the these techniques - the only environment where one can ascertain whether their skills are truly effective under pressure. Sporting contest also presumes, requires and encourages a strongly developed sense of fair play and mutual benefit amongst players if it is to be viable on a regular, enjoyable and continuous basis as a sport.

Kawaishi Jujitsu preserves these building blocks but includes from the very start the disallowed techniques, which together with the highly effective sport bred throws and ground work effectively comprise a modern "goshin" jujitsu eminently suitable for young, old, men, women and youngsters. Removed from the sporting element provided for by Judo, jujitsu loses much of its ability to assess itself under pressure. In a sporting environment, anything that doesn`t truly work under pressure has a very short lifespan in a curriculum, thus, when compared with most other so-called goshin jujitsu systems, Kawaishi Jujitsu has a much smaller set of techniques but they all have a history of great reliability and achievability under pressure. These factors, more than any other, set Kawaishi Jujitsu apart.